Arby's Is Slaying The Social Media Game (Literally)

Don’t worry about being plagued by ad after ad of sandwiches and fries, Arby’s has found a new crowd to please: The Gamers. Equipped with cardboard to-go boxes and a wildly creative animation team, Arby’s is dominating social media.

With the majority of marketing and advertising now directed through social media, many brands are not only attempting to be seen but also stand out. For a long time, brands followed the same pattern of posting ads and trying to fit in with the young social media community by maybe posting a joke or two. But this isn’t enough. Audiences often know when they’re being advertised to, and they’ll scroll past most of the ads they see. Arby’s has found a way to combat this oversaturated way of using social channels.

Arby’s became another fan on the internet, someone that the audience could connect with. Their posts have viral qualities, pairing pop culture, artwork, and fast food all into one. It’s a combo that’s bringing in the customers like crazy.

Some of their most popular posts are videos. Here’s an example that combines Kirby the Nintendo game character and the Arby’s product, curly fries. Stop motion animation makes the social post fun to watch and draws the eye. It’s also very clever, as Kirby’s power is to vacuum everything into his mouth. Talk about an enagaging post!

After scrolling through the comments on both Twitter and Instagram, there was a massive influx of positive comments. Many saying that these posts by Arby’s literally drew them to the store. One fan commented:

“…Who ever thought of these things please atleast give them a raise. In fact give the marketing team a raise please cuz imma go to arbys just cuz of this. Never had arbys but this finna be a first.” @idkamfam

The posts are also inspiring their audience. Not only do they want to come in and eat the food, but they want to recreate the art too. This is a perfect example of the right way to build a niche and social community for a brand. Look how many likes and retweets!

“Yup definitely eating at arbys and doing this on there Table from now on” -@luis.f.corona

The Arby’s Team takes advantage of game releases and tv show finales, working the topics into their posts. This tactic of content creation is driving trending topics, right into their own social media.

In an interview with gaming website Kotaku.com, senior director of digital and social at Arby’s, Josh Martin, discussed why Arby’s changed their content so drastically. “We decided that we should be focused more on engaging an audience on social that selling,” said Martin. “So we went all-in on that premise. Focused on putting stuff out on the news feed that people would react to and find interesting and worry less about trying to push a product.”

This was one idea that truly paid off. Arby’s now boasts over 808k followers on Twitter and 222k on Instagram, with tens of thousands of likes. They’re drawing in a crowd, and it’s made them stand out in the fast food industry. For marketers, this content creation is truly inspiring. Creativity takes the driver’s seat for their social. It might be time for more brands to catch on.